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Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow met the Star’s editorial board this week to discuss the state of the 10-month campaign. Excerpts:

Q: What accounts for the remarkable persistence in support for ?

A: There’s a sense of alienation. A sense of anguish, or “I’m struggling, I work two, three jobs, I’m not getting ahead much and I need someone in my corner. This Rob Ford guy, he gets things done. I don’t agree with his personal life, but that’s his personal life.”

I’m reaching out to these people. Then I talk abut: Do you want your kids to grow up (with) him as a role model? So you see some of the people who don’t want to vote for Rob Ford anymore coming to me because I can relate to their lives, that they have to struggle – struggle to get a job, struggle to make ends meet, struggle to fit in, struggle to learn a new language. I experienced all those things and my family went through them all.

Q: You’ve said you’ll keep property tax increases at the rate of inflation. What about tolls and fees?

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A: I don’t support tolls. We need to give drivers alternatives… If you want to go after the drivers you have to make sure there are enough alternatives. Otherwise they’re just paying more.

Under Rob Ford, all the user fees have gone up. TTC fares have gone up, parks and rec, rental of spaces, and it’s just really unfair… I think they should be frozen. Because I don’t believe we should punish the Tamil sports league in trying to rent soccer fields or basketball courts from the city, that we should up their fees. That’s really unfortunate. At bare minimum it should be frozen. They are creating exciting opportunities for our young people; we need more of that rather than going after them.

Q: Is there still “gravy” in the city budget?

A: The police overtime budget, for example… I know where we can find savings. It’s not easy. You have to have courage to go after it.

Q: Anything else?

A: We cannot come out with a complete platform (now), and you will see very clearly where we are going to invest and how we will balance the budget.

Q: So you’re only mentioning the police.

A: I think we have to have the courage to stand up to investment that doesn’t make sense… The frontline men and women who put their lives on the line, it’s important to support them. But if there’s no business plan on some of the spending… Some of you remember the helicopters [the Toronto Police Service sought funding to rent helicopters in 2001]. We need officers on the ground, not in the air. So let’s look at the business plan and make these decisions wisely… The reason I mention overtime is I saw the Sunshine List [of public employees making over $100,000 a year], and I said that must be because of the overtime.

Q: Is your plan for a downtown relief line contingent on stopping the Scarborough subway and freeing up the money for that?

A: It would be very difficult, absolutely. Because the subway line – even just the eastern portion – is $3 billion.

Q: How is the campaign different without Rob Ford?

A: There’s a lot less distraction. With him back it’s going to be a lot more distraction about his personal life and his failed policies… On a personal level I wish him well because he’s sick, he has an addiction problem. And he needs friends and communities and families around him to say no, you have to follow this path and not the others.

Q: Why have your poll results flat-lined?

A: The response I’m getting in the street is phenomenal… This city has shown [in the provincial election] that it wants a progressive alternative. And I’m the only candidate who has shown she can provide that progressive option – the only candidate.

Q: Isn’t Toronto big enough to make its own development decisions rather than being under the authority of the Ontario Municipal Board?

A: Absolutely. We need to make our own decisions. We need to say to the province that we need to reform the OMB. I would negotiate with the province and come up with a model to reform.

Q: Is there a danger you may be seen as the small-bore candidate? Aren’t people ready to think bigger?

A: The subway relief line is big – it’s a huge project.

The vision is that we can create a better city. A better city means all modes of transportation.

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